The Cullen Prince
by saol-agus-saoirse
Summary: Bella Swan is a bartender and student with a dark past. Edward Cullen is a businessman and a mafia prince with a dark present. When Alice introduces her to this new side of life, will Bella's demons be banished with a pair of green eyes and perfect lips or will they threaten to drown her? AU/AH/OOC. Canon couples. Rated M for violence/language/possible lemons.
1. Chapter 1

**BPOV**

The music at the club was loud – too loud. If he wasn't careful, Mike was going to get another fine for disturbing our fine neighbours living across from us. You'd think people who rented apartments directly facing a club would be a lot more forgiving, considering how little they had to pay due to their noisy surroundings but alas, Mike had 2 fines and the threat of being shut down already on his back. The music made my body vibrate as I served two more customers screaming for my attention – no, literally screaming for my attention. I could take that as long as there was no finger clicking involved. My job was wholly ironic considering I didn't really drink myself and the cretins I had to serve did little to make me reconsider my stance on partying. The club was packed tonight due to some DJ Mike had flown in from LA. It made me laugh a little at the fact he's trying to make the place seem a little more exclusive. Dusk is just a grimy little club that people come to because there are no pretences – we let anyone in as long as you have ID and don't look like a complete hobo or crackhead.

I glanced quickly at my iPhone three hours later to see that it was time for the bar to close and I could get the hell out. I had covered Eve's shift for her only under the agreement that I didn't have to clean up, which usually kept us here until 7am, due to the fact Mike was too cheap to employ a cleaning company to come in after us, so I said my goodbyes to my co-workers, enjoying the grimaces on their faces as I walked out the door. Avoiding the vomit and the drunken sorority girls crying and hugging on the sidewalk, I walked to the side of the club to where my car was parked and gratefully slipped in to the cool leather. I could feel the light sweat on the back of my neck run down under my tank top. The silence in the car was golden and made me that much more ready to slide into bed before my alarm woke me for class tomorrow.

The lights were on when I got home which confused the hell out of me. Alice was never up at this time unless she was just home from partying and as far as I knew, she hadn't mentioned she was heading out tonight. It was only when I walked through the front door and interrupted Alice sucking the face off some blonde guy that I realized why she was still up. She had to be drunk. Alice was forever bringing home strays after getting trashed to hook up with. The sound of the front door seemed to startle the blonde guy as he pushed Alice away slightly, looking uncomfortable.

"Ali, baby, your roommate is home."

Ali? Baby? Who was this guy?

"Jazz, you should go, I need to talk to Bella," Alice pouted slightly, turning away from me after a quick glance to peck him on the lips again. I moved away from the door as he collected his jacket from the couch and kissed Alice again. He smiled as he passed me and I took the time to notice he was actually pretty good looking – tall, nice teeth, no facial deformities. I instinctively smiled back.

"It's nice to meet you, finally," he said.

With that, he closed the door and I spun around to Alice, "Mary Alice Brandon, you have some explaining to do, who the fuck was that and why do you have that weird smile on your face that you usually reserve for sales?" I smirked but I had to admit, I didn't like feeling confused. My patience tended to wear thin when I didn't know everything about what was going on around me. Alice had the decency to look guilty when she dragged me to sit beside her on the grey couch.

"Don't get mad… but Jasper is my boyfriend." In the soft glow of the lamp on the table beside the couch I could see that instead of the bloodshot, drunken eyes I had expected, her eyes were wide and sparkling with happiness. I didn't get mad as she expected. Instead I just felt hurt invade my chest.

Alice had been my best friend for 12 years. From my first day back at Forks Elementary when I had stumbled through the classroom door awkwardly and perpetually sad, Alice had been the light to my dark. She wasn't just my best friend; she may as well have been my sister. Knowing that she had kept something from me, when I told her everything, made my heart hurt a little. It was childish, I know, but an involuntary reaction.

Alice, reading my face like an expert, rushed on, "Bella, I know, I know, I don't know how I managed to keep it a secret from you for this long but I was scared and didn't know what I was feeling for him and whether I should introduce him to you, because you know I love you and you're so important to me but I love him and he makes me feel like I'm the only person in the world who matters and-"

I cut her off with a little laugh. With her breathless, frightened look and rant, Alice had once again been the light for me and helped soothe over the sting I'd felt from the childish hurt at her lying to me. She was happy. That was all that mattered.

"Ali, you're happy. Don't worry, I'm just being a little bitch about it and I'm exhausted from working, it's fine," I shrugged.

"I haven't said the part that's gonna make you mad yet."

She wouldn't meet my eyes and I frowned, "What?"

"I knew you'd get over the fact I lied to you, because I'm happy. I just don't think you're going to be happy with what Jasper does for a living."

She thought I was going to be upset over how much he earns? I jerked my head back in surprise. Alice knew me better than that, I didn't care for materialistic things or money, nor did I judge people by what they had or didn't have in that sense. I snorted at her insinuation I would think less of him due to what he does as I got up to wander into the kitchen connected to the living room. I glanced back at Alice over the breakfast bar to see that she was now wringing her hands in her position on the couch and had lost that happy look in her eyes.

" I'm now offended you think I care about how much he earns, Alice," I retorted as I pulled some tea bags from the cupboard and began to fill the teapot with water. She still hadn't answered me as I placed it on the stove to boil.

"Bella," I heard her breathe in deeply, "Bella, he's in the mob."

And now I understand why the fuck she was so worried.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, I didn't really write an author's note or anything at the start because I really wasn't sure anyone would read but I'm shocked and so grateful to anyone who has reviewed, put this on story alert and even favourited it already. Thank you so much! I also should probably put in a little disclaimer because obviously SM owns all and I'm just fucking with her characters.**

* * *

**BPOV**

At first, I didn't take Alice seriously. The mob? In Seattle? I highly doubted that. The more I stared at my best friend though, my stomach sunk. "Alice, you're being serious, aren't you?" I barely whispered. I had never seen her look at me the way she was now. I'd seen her so excited she would be bouncing off walls, which was her general disposition in life, to upset over those advertisements on TV for starving children in Africa. I had never in my life seen Alice look as fucking petrified as she did now. "Alice, fucking answer me!" I snapped.

"Bella, I don't know what you want me to say!"

"How about that you're joking and you're not dating a guy who kills people in his spare time for drugs and money? How about that? Are you insane?" I practically screamed. My hands were shaking and I couldn't get them to stop. Alice flinched and I saw her scared demeanour replaced with fire in her eyes.

"Jasper isn't like that. You don't even know him. He's the most caring person I have ever met in my life." She breathed. Her tone was laced with ice and in direct contrast to her rage-filled glare. I snorted derisively at her words.

"I don't get how he can be in the mob and not kill people or be involved in drugs. Don't be so naïve, Alice. He kills people for fun, for sport. What about when you have your first fight with him? Raise your voice at him? Or maybe he just won't like the look you give him one day and goodbye, Alice, here's a bullet, love you too, sweetheart," I sneered. How foolish could she be? I could see my words had hit their mark when her face fell. Her body folded in on itself like a flower I had just stepped on. The light in her face when I had come through the door was gone. Extinguished.

I needed to be away from her. I recognized the familiar, jagged feeling in my chest and needed to be away. Now. I stormed past her defeated form and slammed the apartment door as hard as I could on my way out. My heart was pounding in my ears as I started my car and threw it into reverse. I needed to get away from the harsh words I had said. I needed to escape from what I knew was coming but I would never be able to hold off. Alice could usually talk me down but, for the first time, she was going to make it worse. I managed a few minutes of driving before I had to pull over, my breath coming in tight gasps as my heart continued to thunder in my eardrums. My hands and fingernails began to sink into my hair and scalp, pulling as I sobbed and screamed. The pain did little to distract me from the onslaught of images.

Blood.

The pain of hunger deep in my stomach.

The confusion.

The hurt.

More blood.

Grabbing at the steering wheel, I tried to tell myself to calm down. I wasn't there anymore. I had moved on. The tears streamed over my face, I was choking on the mucus from sobbing so hard and my head was beginning to feel tight from the screaming but I couldn't stop. I would never be over this. The voice I tried to ignore began whispering to me.

_"Be a good girl, Bella."_

"Be a good girl, Bella."

"Be a good girl, Bella."

I kept screaming to drown it out.

*

The blinding pain of white light on my sensitive eyes the next morning made me groan as I rolled over. I'd forgotten to pull the blinds when I got home last night, emotionally drained and physically exhausted. Checking my phone through my cracked eye, I saw I had slept through my alarm and missed all of my classes for today. Hardly surprising considering it wasn't until around 6am this morning I had finally managed to calm down and drive home. The apartment had been dark and silent when I came home. I assumed Alice had gone to Jasper's when I saw her empty bed. In my almost catatonic state, the thought of her with him again hadn't been enough to send me off once more thankfully. Crawling from bed, I stumbled to the kitchen and made myself some tea. My Nana had always gave me tea when I was younger to make me feel better, and even now the hot cup in my hands coupled with the sweet taste of milky tea warmed my heart. Nana would have known what to do. No matter what was happening in the family, Nana was the one who fixed things. She was a stubborn, old woman, but beautiful until her dying days and sharp with her tongue always. I missed her so much and the way she would stroke my arms lightly with her nails, lulling me to sleep or just contentment in her arms.

Nana would have been able to fix my aching heart and soothed the pain but she died before my heart was truly ripped to shreds. I existed the best I could, but it was hard to pretend sometimes. I was always pretending. If I wasn't pretending to be happy, I was pretending to be interested in what the boys in class were saying. Always fucking pretending. Sure, I was happy sometimes. The guilt that followed that happiness was all-consuming though, and frankly, not worth it. Draining my cup, I set it lightly in the sink and stood against the counter. I loved our kitchen. Our landlord had no problem with us changing the apartment as long as we returned it to its original state before we moved out again, so Alice and I had went crazy, painting the entire place. I smiled as I remembered fighting over the kitchen wall colour. I wanted light green, she wanted pale yellow. I insisted that yellow would be too bright for the kitchen, but as per usual, Alice won and was, as per usual, right. It was perfect and usually made me smile whenever I was in the room.

I dragged my hand up to my face. She wasn't right this time. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact she wanted to be with someone who spent the majority of his time surrounded by greed and death. I wondered if Jasper craved the death of other people. Did he enjoy watching the life leave a person's eyes? What about the tell-tale pool of blood surrounding their body when they'd been cut open? Did it excite him? My stomach rolled and I was thankful I hadn't eaten anything today yet.

The front door opened and I braced myself against the counter behind me with both hands. I didn't know what to expect from Alice today. The girl who rounded the door didn't look like my best friend. Where usually her short, black hair was perfectly arranged and her make-up and clothes put together with well-thought out precision, I saw a tiny, dressed down, pale faced, rumpled looking girl. The dark circles under her swollen, red-rimmed eyes made my chest hurt. You hurt, I hurt, Alice. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around myself.

"Alice, I'm sorry I spoke to you like that last night, you didn't deserve that. I just couldn't get out of my head long enough to stop my mouth."

It was a terrible apology. My best friend had a heart of gold and I spoke to her like she was a piece of shit on my shoe last night. As always though, she just gave me a weak smile and dashed across the living room and into the kitchen to wrap me in her skinny arms.

"I know, Bella, but I get why, you know I do," she whispered into my arm. I nodded, swallowing thickly. Don't fucking cry, Bella. Don't start yourself off again. Alice stepped away and looked at me pleadingly, "You do need to give Jasper a chance though, Bella. He's important to me. Let him show you that he isn't the monster you think he is."

"Alice, I can't. Someone who volunteers to be around anything they are involved with has to have only hatred in their hearts. It isn't possible for them to feel love or empathy. If they did, they wouldn't be able to commit those crimes and sleep at night. It makes me feel sick." I held my stomach and stared pathetically at her, hoping she would drop it.

Alice's dark brows furrowed, "No, Bella, I know he is capable of love and empathy. I can feel it. Every time he looks at me. Every time he touches me. You can't judge him when you don't know him, it isn't fair. I wasn't happy either when I found out, but you have to understand that the way Jasper makes me feel is more important to me that what he does when he is working. He's intelligent and kind, he is polite and never swears around me, he pulls out my chairs and calls me beautiful. How can you say he isn't capable of love? That he isn't capable of loving me?"

"He also murders people, Alice. He takes away a son, a father, a sister, even a mother," my voice cracks, "Somehow I think that trumps all."

"Give him a chance, Bella. Please. You'll see he is more than what he does. I promise." Alice stares at me and the look on her face shatters my resolve. No matter how strongly I feel about this, I know that he makes her happy. Even with the way she looks now, when she says his name, her eyes light up and a smile tugs at her lips. With everything Alice has ever had to give up for me, with everything she has put up with by being my friend, I owe her this. She'd never say it and would never hold it over me but I know it. I owe her everything. If this will take away the sadness in every line of her face right now, I'd do anything she asked of me. That's what family does.

*

I really regret loving Alice. That is the only thing running through my mind, four nights later, sitting in a cab with her on my way to dinner. Did I mention it was dinner with Jasper, his sister and two best friends? Apparently, it would be far too awkward, according to Alice, to have just the three of us there. Sure. A group of four people I don't know with possible connections to the mob is so much less fucking awkward. She just knows I'm less likely to make a scene with more people. She is far too sneaky. I can see her smirk at me from under her eyelashes. "Play nice. For me."

I sigh at her, "Of course, Alice. I promised, didn't I? No judging until tonight is over."

Mamma Angela's is a quiet, Italian restaurant in downtown Seattle. Alice knows it's my favourite and I can sense she is trying to placate me. Their tomato bruschetta makes me a far nicer person to deal with. I feel ridiculously overdressed in the dark blue, three quarter length sleeved, shift dress Alice has forced me into. The nude, strappy heels she has also confined me to for the night are pinching my feet and I already know I won't be able to walk in the death traps. Tugging at my dress when I get out of the cab, hoping that it will grow another few inches to cover more of my thighs, Alice slaps my hand away and I scowl.

"Quit it, you look fantastic," she hisses. I growl at her and she smiles at me before laughing and linking her arm through mine. "Bella, Bella, wait until you see what I have planned for you. You won't be worrying about that dress in a minute…"

Reaching inside, I smiled at Tony, one of the long-standing waiters and he led us to our table where four people were already seated. I would have stopped dead in my tracks if it hadn't of been for Alice dragging me along. Jasper, who I assumed to be his equally blonde and ridiculously good looking sister, a huge monster of a man and a bronze haired man whose face I couldn't quite see from where he was seated were laughing at something the blonde bombshell had just said. They noticed us coming towards them and all turned to greet us.

This time I did stop in my tracks. Not even the momentum of Alice's tiny body could pull me forward. He was the first out of his seat, which happened to be closest to me, to shake my hand and I couldn't quite hear what he was saying because I was entirely too dumbstruck to pay attention. Those eyes. Bottle green, intense eyes. I realized a second too late that my hand was limp in his and I shook a little to enthusiastically to even attempt to play it off as casual. He smirked and those lips were next on my fantasy list. Perfect, pink and pouty. Would he let me lick them?

He had an air of authority about him. So confident, so sure of everything he did. Everything was a calculated move. His dark grey suit was tailored to fit his body perfectly, and I knew even without Alice's help, that it was designer and quite obviously cost thousands of dollars. I'd have been a lot more enthusiastic about dinner if I knew Alice had invited whoever the model was.

"Edward Cullen, nice to meet you." I hmmed in response to him, still slightly caught in a fantasy where he'd already fucked me against every flat surface in the restaurant, "I've heard so much about you from Alice."

Wait, what?

* * *

**So, hi Edward. Yes, my Bella is a little all over the place and does like to swear. Still trying to set the story here so forgive me if it's a little tedious right now, it will get better. Reviews make me write faster! ;)**


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